AESTHETI C CRI TI CI SM

MOVI E REVI EW POSTER

I. CLASS: 9
th
grade class 50 minutes.

II. TIME NEEDED: 4 Class periods (1 day for introduction, 2 work days, 1 day final
critique and presentation)

III. ART HISTORICAL BACKGROUND RELATED TO LESSON:
Many people may not think movie posters as a particular art form, but it is and has
been a viable career for fine artists in the age of film and blockbuster movies. Drew
Struzan and John Alvin are some of the most well known artists in this field, who are
known for their iconic posters of films like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the
Future, Blade Runner, Blazing Saddles, E.T., and many more. Before the advent of
digital based media, they often used traditional forms of media such as paints, but the
same principals of art and design apply regardless of what medium they use, and
artists today have shifted their focus into more modern forms of media on the
computer to create their designs and illustrations. Movie posters is just one example
of the many types of careers available for working artists today, and people like Drew
Struzan and John Alvin are prime examples of such artists.

IV. SUBJECT: The point of this lesson is to use aesthetic criticism to review a movie
and use digital tools to design & illustrate a movie poster that summarizes their
critique and represents the main characters and theme of the movie.

V. EQUIPMENT / AV MATERIALS: PowerPoint presentation, Smart Board
projector, digital images of movie posters.

VI. SUPPLIES: Computer, drawing tablet, digital scanner.

VII. OBJECTIVES:
Academic Skills: Students will be able to identify artists that illustrate and design
movie posters as a particular career in the fine arts. Students will also learn how to
summarize their critique and pick out the
Craftsmanship Skills: Students will use drawing and Photoshop tools like layers,
selection, text tools, etc. to create a compelling and well composed movie poster
Cognitive Skills: Students with be able to develop an aesthetic criteria for whether a
film was good or bad and explain using proper art vocabulary the reasons and
justification for why they hold that judgment.
Behavior/Social Skills: Develop a sense of respect when performing a peer-
assessment of their fellow students during class critiques



VIII. BENCHMARKS AND STANDARDS: HS BEGINNING
A. Ohio Benchmarks and Standards in the Visual Arts:
3PE: Identify the relationship between community or cultural values and trends in
visual art.
5PE: Describe the role of technology as a visual art medium.
3PR: Explore multiple solutions to visual art problems through preparatory work.
5PR: Investigate how to access available digital tools and innovative technologies
to create and manipulate artwork.
1RE: Explore various methods of art criticism in responding to artworks.

B. Benchmarks and Standards in Other Disciplines:
Mathematics:
- Geometry and Spatial Sense: Students will need to think about the
compositional space for where to place images and text in their poster that
doesnt look cluttered for random.
Social Studies:
- History: Think about the use of game throughout history and the relative
recent phenomena of video games.
English:
- Language Acquisition: Students will hear and use vocabulary words
including: background, middle ground, foreground, production, concept artist,
graphic design, illustration, composition, layers, drop shadow, font, line,
balance, symmetry, asymmetry, and emphasis.

IX. LEARNER OUTCOMES: Students will develop and use a personal, aesthetic
criteria for evaluating a piece of pop culture media (e.g. a popular movie, book, video
game, etc.), learn how to writing a review of that product using that criteria, and use
digital software and tools to create a custom movie poster that includes highlights
from their review.

X. SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS: Keep liquids and magnets away from computers
and electronic devices.

XI. ALTERNATIVES TO THE LESSON: Students who wish to review something
other than a movie can choose alternative such as a book, graphic novel, T.V. show,
or video game.

XII. THEORIES/THEORISTS RELATED TO LESSON: Howard Garner and his
Multiple Intelligences theory is relevant because students are given a wide range of
choices to complete the task e.g. reviews of a popular movie (visual), book
(linguistic), musical album (musical), or video game (kinesthetic). Blooms
taxonomy is also utilized here because students will have to use all stages in order to
complete the project, from remembering their movies, book, etc., applying their
understanding of it to analyze, evaluate (critique) and eventually create a work of art
expressing those thoughts.



XIII. ACADEMIC LANGUAGE: The students will be hearing and learning art
vocabulary terms including: foreground, background, middle ground, aesthetics,
critique, production, concept artist, graphic design, illustration, composition, layers,
drop shadow, font, line, balance, symmetry, asymmetry, and emphasis. Non-art
vocabulary terms include: criteria, justify, protagonist, antagonist, and summarize.

XIV. PROCEDURE:

1. Introduction: The 1
st
class will begin with a discussion about aesthetics and
popular culture media. This will segway into a PowerPoint presentation on movie
posters a form of Art as well as an example of the many careers that are possible
as a digital artist and designer. The presentation will then explain the procedures
and expectations for the project.
A. Motivation As a way to model what Im expecting from the student in their
aesthetic critique, as well as a way to give them practice before starting the
project, I will play a clip from the film Koyaanisqatsi, and discuss my own
critique of the film. Then I will open it up for students to make remarks and
give their own critiques of what they saw as a way to talk about and practice
aesthetic criticism.
B. New and Reviewed Experiences Students will be drawing upon their own
experiences and interests by choosing a movie, book, etc. of their liking (or
disliking) to critique for the project. They will also be asked to think about
their own daily aesthetic criticisms when it comes to clothes people wear,
music they listen to, etc. What will likely be new for student is putting down
these aesthetic ideas and criticisms into a formal context such as writing a
review and creating a movie poster that expresses that review.
2. Distribution of Materials and Implements: Helpers will be chosen to pass out
materials1 helper for each material.
3. Work Period: Students will be given 5 work days to complete assignment.
A. Day 1: Students will begin by writing their reviews of their movie, book, etc.
B. Day 2: Begin to sketch out thumbnail drawings of possible poster ideas to
help them get an idea of structure and composition. When students have
completed at least 3 different thumbnail sketches of possible ideas, they can
begin working on the computer creating their poster.
C. Day 3: Students will continue to work on their posters
D. Day 4: Do a quick in-progress critique to help student address problems and
issues they may be having. Continue to work on project.
E. Day 5: Last day to work on project. Posters will be due at the beginning of
next class for critique.
F. Day 6: Conduct a class critique and presentation of their posters. Print out
posters in class if time allows.
4. Clean Up: Each group will be responsible for saving their work, cleaning up their
work stations, and shutting down their computers before leaving class.
5. Teacher-pupil Appraisal of the Art Activity: During the activity I will be walking
around to check if each student is making progress, and at the end of each session


a quick formative assessment will be applied by asking review questions about art
vocabulary terms and concepts including art historical questions.

XV. EVALUATION OF STUDENT WORK:
Assessment of student ability
to complete art activity
Excellent Good Average Needs
improvement
Criteria 1 Process:
Poster includes at least 2 main
characters, 3 highlights from
written review, a rating out of 5
stars, and a background.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 or less
Criteria 2 Craftsmanship:
Poster has a good composition
i.e. not too cluttered, can read the
words, not too much overlap in
images.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 or less
Criteria 3 Behavior:
Participates & shows respect for
students during project & class
critique/discussions
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 or less
Criteria 4 Effort:
Shows effort, uses times wisely
and demonstrates planning
before beginning poster i.e.
creates at least 3 thumbnail
sketches
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 or less
Criteria 5 Creativity:
Creates a unique and personally
meaningful poster that shows
imagination and expresses their
own aesthetic criticisms
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 or less
Total: 50 (possible points)


50 46 points = A 45 40 points = B 39 33 points = C 32 25 points = D 24 0 points = F